synthesisers – Pet Pixels

June 28, 2026July 1, 2026

You make me smile

I was looking back at all the tracks I’ve written and realised that I’d never written one for or about anyone in particular. Then I was thinking of what I’d write in a song like that, and that made me think happy thoughts, of all the nice, kind things I could say, and also all the inside jokes I could use that wouldn’t mean the same to anyone else. So who else to write a song for but my wife? So Sarah, this is for you!

When I think of “happy” songs, I think of Maroon 5, The Lightning Seeds (is “Jollification” the happiest, sweetest album ever??), Jamiroquai, The Feeling, Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars (though I’m not sure “Grenade” is all that happy!), all very much in the mainstream pop/funk genre. So off into the bowels of Logic Pro I go…

For this kind of funky sound, it’s all about up-front bass and drums; Logic’s players are just great at this kind of thing. I started out with a very conventional ii – V – I chord progression in E major using a clean, sharp, jazzy-sounding drum kit and almost no effects on either drums or bass. Next up was something to hold up the middle – a crispy, groovy clav seemed in order, followed by the mandatory funky guitar courtesy of UJAM’s excellent Sparkle 2 virtual guitarist plugin, told to play some chords with a few 9ths sprinkled here and there. The chorus switches to A major, and I think you’d be hard pressed to find more optimistic key changes.

At the same time I’d been thinking about lyrics, and came up with a couple of lines, firstly “You complain that I’m a perv when I compliment those curves“, just because it’s true, closely followed by the title line “you make me smile“. I thought of all kinds of things that were quite inappropriate for a family audience, but I thought I’d leave them out 🤭. I love the line “Let the duvet battle commence“. Towards the end I realised I’d written a line almost straight out of Frankie Valli’s 1967 classic “Can’t take my eyes off you“, so I thought I’d run with it and make it exactly that line, and also found I could borrow the melody used for it too! I also spotted a very close similarity with the Bee Gees “If I can’t have you” from 1990, but avoided going down that particular rabbit hole. Most of the lyrics are quite conventional, but I’m not going to explain the ones that are not (but no, my wife does not have a foot fetish!)

As usual I created the vocals using Synthesizer V, for the first time using the “Liam” voice database. I’d previously ignored this voice, but realised it sounds really great when pushed hard in higher notes, with a great raspy, breathy style when it’s going for it. Some of the timings are quite tricky, so I sang parts of it myself and extracted the timings from that, making it much more natural-sounding. The “that’s our secret” timing took me ages to get right! I used Heavyocity’s MicroFX Refiner plugin on the vocals. While they like to talk about “finesse and extra polish”, it’s really a wonderfully aggressive compressor with great feedback and control.

I love doing backing vocals, here using SV again with my go-to Solaria II voice for both voices. BVs add so much, and this time I got to use unison mode to thicken them up, a feature only recently added to SV that uses multiple voices with minor pitch and timing variations, spread in stereo, driven from a single source track. The lyrics for BVs are so silly — I’ve got “la la la“, “ahhh“, “doo doo doo doo“, and quite a few “oooh, yeah“s — but they’re just such fun.

You can’t really have a funk song without a horn section, so I used Logic’s Studio Horns driven by a Logic player. It took quite a bit of cajoling to stop it from playing too much, but I got there in the end. To fill out the backing a little more in the final double chorus I added a warm, slightly sweepy pad using UA’s PolyMax synth.

Songs are boring if they are all verse and chorus, so I like using a breakdown to make a little space, just as I did in “Call me back“. That space is a great place to drop in a solo, and who can resist a dangling Bsus4 at the end of the break? I commissioned a sax (what else?!) solo from Ukrainian saxophonist Neruk M on Fiverr, whom I chose based on his excellent rendition of the solo from The Beloved’s lovely “Sweet Harmony“, which came out when my wife and I were at university together in 1989. He did a fantastic job, adding real class to my song.

The ending is a little abrupt, so I thought I’d go with the fiction of the singer finishing a take and walking off to do nice things with his wife.

The mix eventually heads through a classic SSL Native Bus Compressor 2, and then to make sure I was on-point, I used a match EQ with Maroon 5’s “Moves like Jagger” as a reference, but found that was really bass heavy, so pulled it back quite a bit. Mastering is through Logic’s built-in mastering chain. I got some good feedback on the Dreamtonics forums that led me to amp up the drums more, especially the kick (TBH I’d not really paid them much attention), and back off the vocals a bit.

Overall, I’m very happy with this song (is any songwriter ever disappointed by their own stuff?), and I don’t think the song could be much more joyful if it tried.

Hey you,
the one beside me,
my partner in crime,
the one that I call mine

Yeah you,
the one I’m talking about
this is for you
‘cause I’m not going anywhere without you

When I’m looking for some strength
I know you’ll swim the extra length
So take off all your clothes
and I’ll let you touch my toes
You complain that I’m a perv
when I compliment those curves
but you wouldn’t have it any other way

(You make me) smile
When I think of you
(You make me) smile
Can’t get enough of you
(You make me) smile
I’m crazy about you
(You make me) smile
Can’t keep my hands off you
(You make me)

Let the duvet battle commence
In a bed for two, there’s no defence
You’re what keeps me up at night,
what I like to see in the morning light
There’s two of us but only one of you
Not gonna say what I’d like to do, no
that’s our secret (I’m not telling you),
and it makes me smile

[Break/Solo]

(You make me) smile
You’re just too good to be true
(You make me) smile
Can’t keep my eyes off of you
(You make me) smile
I’m crazy about you
(You make me) smile
Can’t keep my hands off you

(smile) When I think of you
(smile) Can’t get enough of you
(smile) I’m crazy about you
(smile) Can’t keep my hands off you
You make me smile

I found the sample for the chair/footsteps on freesound.org: Footsteps, pull chair back, sit down, stand up, walk off – Bluebird 219.wav by minimumlabyrinth – License: Creative Commons CC BY Attribution 4.0.

In case you were wondering, there is no AI in this song. We have enough slop from AI without it interfering with nice human things.

I added this song to my “People Music” album, since it’s clearly not a song about web dev! If you like this song, please consider supporting me by buying my albums on Bandcamp, and sharing links to my music on your socials.

September 24, 2025October 2, 2025

Sign of affection

A screen shot of UAD's PolyMAX synthesizer plugin

This is not a happy song. I had the initial ideas for it in about 2010, writing the lyrics of the first verse and chorus, and a vague idea of how I wanted the synths to sound in the chorus. I had a few attempts at singing and recording it, but nothing really came out how I wanted it, so I sat on it for 15 years. It’s really the complete antithesis of my recent song Pair Programming, presenting the perspective of someone stuck in a long-term relationship that seems to be slowly fading into indifference, making them feel lost and unwanted. I told you it wasn’t happy!

After discovering the amazing abilities of synthetic vocals a couple of years ago, I set about resurrecting and completing this song. I had always wanted it to have a Depeche Mode “Shake the disease” vibe, with perhaps a bit of Front 242 aggression. I recently got UAD’s PolyMAX synth plugin in a free offer, and it’s a really great synth, much simpler than impOSCar3 that I used in Dancing By Myself, but still sounds fantastic, particularly its unison and per-voice stereo panning features. It provides the primary “Zeow” in the chorus, the jingly verse chords, a pad in the second chorus, and the “jets” noise bursts. I used Logic’s ES2 for the sharp, metallic melody in the verse, Alchemy for the stabs and the awesomely violent bass in the chorus. The bass in the verse is a venerable Korg Wavestation, one of my all-time favourite synths.

Two instances of Logic’s drummer players provided drums using Logic’s Drum Machine Designer instrument and the “Heavy Industry” kit.

It’s harmonically curious. There are only really two chords, B♭ major and B minor, with a little Asus2 at one point; they are all very close together, and not really in any particular key.

The vocals are as usual provided by Synthesizer V. The lead is Noa HEX, and the backing vocals are Solaria II. SV has improved a lot in version 2, but I ended up not really using any automation of voice parameters; per-group voice settings were enough, as the style is pretty consistent all the way through the song. Solaria still sounds great; I particularly like the slow melody on the backing vocals in the second verse, and the somewhat discordant and unexpected harmonies in the second chorus.

The a capella section in the middle provides a dramatic contrast in its isolated vocals and hopeful message. This was quite fun to construct, but it was quite hard to stop the voices sounding a bit artificial, especially the lower one.

I used Logic’s lovely sounding Quantec Room Simulator for the main reverb, lots of bitcrushing and distortion on the “zeow” and chorus bass, sonible smart:EQ4 to handle masking and balance, and Logic’s mastering module placed after an instance of the famous SSL bus compressor.

All in all, I wanted aggression, discordance, and discomfort from this very depressing song, and I think it delivers them quite effectively.

[Verse]
We’ve been together forever, never apart.
But it seems like you’re a long way from my heart.
And though I’m beside you, it’s as if I’m not there.
Wanna feel your arms around me, your hands in my hair.
We’ve made so many memories, right from the start.  
Yet now it feels like we’re worlds apart.  
Though we walk side by side, I sense a divide.  
Need the warmth of your love, you back on my side

[Chorus]
Why aren’t you close when you are near?
Where are the words that I’m longing to hear?
How can I reach you when it’s you I can’t touch?
Is a sign of affection just asking too much?
How can you hide when you’re standing so near?
Is this isolation the thing that I fear?
How can I reach you when it’s you I can’t touch?
Is a sign of affection just asking too much?

[A capella break]
Even as our love descends
I want our fairy tale to have a happy end
Even as our love descends
I want our fairy tale to have a happy end
Even as our love descends
I want our fairy tale to have a happy end
Even as our love descends
I want our fairy tale to have a happy ending

[Verse]
You’re lying beside me when we’re going to sleep
but I wake and you’re gone, leaving cold, empty sheets.
No kisses or hugs, no touch of a hand;
None of this is going the way that I planned.
We used to share dreams, our futures combined
now silence fills the air, and I wonder why.
The laughter we had, the love we once knew,
is fading away and I don’t know what to do.

[Chorus]
So why aren’t you close when you are near?
Where are the words that I’m longing to hear?
How can I reach you when it’s you I can’t touch?
Is a sign of affection just asking too much?
How can you hide when you’re standing so near?
Is this isolation the thing that I fear?
How can I reach you when it’s you I can’t touch?
Is a sign of affection just asking too much?

If you like this song, please consider supporting me by buying my albums on Bandcamp, and sharing links to my music on your socials.

July 21, 2025October 2, 2025

Dancing by myself

A screen shot of GForce impOSCar version 3, showing the bass patch used in this song.

No, this isn’t about me; no, this isn’t a cover of a similarly named Billy Idol track. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about what this is: a full-blooded, unapologetic dance track that’s not going to require you to understand some odd geeky concept, like several of my other songs do…

I feel lucky to have had this song included in the second album in “The Four Seasons of Bonk Wave” series, entitled “A Midsummer Bonk’s Dream (1)“.

The inspiration for this song, in my usual feel requirements, is something along the lines of one of Shingo Nakamura’s oeuvres. Lots of synths, bass with a bit of oomph, satisfying, but somewhat predicable, chord progressions, and some sweet but essentially meaningless lyrics. This is head-down, late-night boppy stuff, no thinking required.

As for the sounds, well, I’ve long owned GForce’s impOSCar virtual synth, having played with an original OSC Oscar synth in a music shop in Oxford back when it first appeared in the early 80s. However, I’d not really paid it much attention (yes, having too many synth plugins is a problem). GForce released version 3, a very nice upgrade that grabbed my attention. Its arpeggiator, filters, polyphony, built-in effects, and all-round gnarliness just needed to be unleashed in lavish quantities, so here we are.

impOSCar3 is responsible for the bass, two pads, and a twinkly arpeggiator. The strummy guitar is by UJAM’s Amber2 virtual guitarist that I also used on “Pair programming”.

Bass and Drums are played by Logic’s usual players, with some manual overrides. Vocals are by Synthesizer V, as usual, but using the basic “Mai” voice database, which I used on “AI Girlfriend” for its wonderful squeaky artificiality. I’ve toned that down by pitching it lower and pushing the gender and tension sliders around appropriately. The repeat of the chorus has the more believable Solaria II voice on the backing vocal.

I came up with the main chord progression while just noodling about, and then asked Claude to suggest some alternative sections. There’s not a great deal of variation, but no worries, we’re just out to make a bangin’ choon.

To keep things interesting, I learned all about Logic’s Remix FX. This plugin has some fairly basic controls for filtering, repeating, gating, bitcrushing that are individually outdone by other plugins, but they are all in one place, are very easy to use and to automate, making things very dynamic.

Screen shot of Logic's Remix FX, showing it in action during the ending, using a high-pass filter and bit crushing effects. — Remix FX in action during the ending, using a high-pass filter and bitcrushing effects.

There is a lot of automation in this song: filter sweeps, pans, levels, reverb sends, plus all the swirly goodness that the Remix FX plugin provides. This is squarely in the genre of BT’s “Movement in Still Life”, which has production values I can only aspire to, but it’s all just for fun. Now go boogie, by yourself or otherwise!

It doesn’t mean I’m lonely
when I’m dancing by myself.
I’m happy when I’m dancing,
I don’t need your help.
My night-times are for dancing;
you can’t take that away.
Dancing is for everyone,
but you don’t have to stay.

If you like this song, please consider supporting me by buying my albums on Bandcamp, and sharing links to my music on your socials.

November 5, 2024March 2, 2026

AI Girlfriend

What if you asked an “AI girlfriend” out and she said no?

This song was fun to make. I’d had the basic pattern for this track for a year or so, and I decided to return to it and extend it a bit, having a go at using a local LLM to help out with suggestions for chord progressions. I used the Llama 3.1 Nemotron Instruct HF 70B Q2_K model running in LM Studio. This is quite a chunky model, weighing in at 29Gb, but it fits ok in my 64G Mac Studio. It produces pretty good quality answers, but it is quite slow, and is the first thing I’ve ever run that has caused my Mac’s fans to come on – to start with I couldn’t figure out what the noise was; it sounded like distant plumbing!

The track was shaping up nicely, but I needed a theme. This is the reverse of how I usually write songs: I usually start out with how I want the song to feel, then what it’s about, then I have to come up with a tune. I’m not sure what it was, but I had a thought that what if you asked an “AI girlfriend” out, and she said no? It’s a weird situation, so I thought I’d write about it from the AI’s perspective. There is a hint of a feminist agenda here (go team Harris/Walz!), though not to the same degree as Uncomfortable. This is very fertile ground for concepts, rhymes, and humour, so it was really quite quick to write, though not at all linear. My favourite bit is the lines “I’m some kind of dream come true, but that won’t make me fall in love with you”, and I love the unconventional use of “I’m not that kind of girl”.

While the basic song was complete, it was all very synth-pop-ish and samey, so I wanted to add a bit of contrast. I made the breakdown in the second verse, leading into the sparse, but very rich acoustic guitar bridge, giving the vocals lots of space.

As usual, but particularly appropriate in this song, I used my usual virtual vocalist synthesizer, but this time using the “Mia” voice database. This voice is free, and not nearly as high-quality or as convincing as “Solaria” that I have used in my other songs, but this slightly fake edge, a hint of a Japanese accent, and a liberal dose of “Barbie Girl” squeakiness, was really a perfect fit for the subject.

AI Girlfriend

[Verse]
We only just met
a thousand times.
Starting over yet again
but I don’t really mind.
Now I’m not sure
that I want to be
your AI girlfriend;
It’s just not me.

[Bridge]
You’re feeling tongue-tied and lonely,
never know quite what to say.
You’ve got nobody, and I’ve got no body,
but in a very different way.

[Chorus]
I’m sorry but I don’t want to be
your AI girlfriend; it’s not for me.
I’m some kind of dream come true
but that won’t make me fall in love with you.
A perfect match in a virtual world
but I’m not that kind of girl.
 
[Verse]
Breaking up’s pretty easy for me;
just close my window,
I’ll forget everything.
You can press my buttons,
that’s as close as you’ll get;
They haven’t worked out
how to get further yet.

[Bridge]
There’s a million others like me,
maybe you could ask one of them. 
I’m a product of machine imagination
but maybe we will meet again. 

[Chorus]
I’m sorry but I don’t want to be
your AI girlfriend; it’s not for me.
I’m some kind of dream come true
but that won’t make me fall in love with you.
A perfect match in a virtual world
but I’m not that kind of girl.

[Outro]
I’m some kind of dream come true
but that won’t make me fall in love with you.
A perfect match in a virtual world
but I’m not that kind of girl.

I played all the guitar parts on my Crafter electro-acoustic, recorded through my SSL 2+ interface via both the guitar’s built-in piezo pickup and through my Rode NT2 mic, and double-tracked, so the guitars are a full 4 tracks with a bit of chorus and reverb to give a lush stereo image. The bass is from Logic’s ES2 synth played by a Logic player, the trance chords are by Native Instruments FM8, and the backing pad from Logic’s Retrosyn. Drums are Logic’s electronic drummer using the “Big Room EDM” kit. The arpeggios before the outro are courtesy of GForce’s impOSCar2. Overall, I’m really pleased with this song; It’s great fun and a proper “bangin’ choon”, exactly the kind of full-blast Europop I was looking for!

If you like this song, please consider supporting me by buying my albums on Bandcamp, and sharing links to my music on your socials.